Karla Sofía Gascón Posts Lengthy Apology, Defends Tweets “That Without Background Only Appear Hateful”: “I Am Not Racist”
In a lengthy Instagram post shared earlier today, Karla Sofía Gascón has reiterated an apology for her past bigoted tweets — which included remarks containing Islamophobia, anti-Black rhetoric and derogatory references to George Floyd’s murder — while simultaneously defending her posts as taken out of context. Gascón also declares that she is “not racist” and has a Muslim loved one and seems to imply that the controversy is a smear campaign for her to not “win anything and sink.”
The Emilia Pérez star and newly minted Oscar nominee began the post, titled “How it happened with Emilia Peréz: Everyone can change for the better, including me,” with a declaration that “They already won.”
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“What I would like to do first is offer my sincerest apologies to those who have felt harmed for my way of expressing myself at any stage of my life,” the Spanish actress wrote. “I have a lot to learn in this world, this being my main flaw. Life has taught me something I never wanted to learn: It is clear to me that no matter how much your message is one [thing], without using the correct words, it becomes another.”
Gascón continued to say that she has gone from living a normal life to another, at the top of her profession, in just six months: “Now my responsibility is greater because my voice does not belong to only myself, but to many people that feel represented and hopeful with me.” (Gascón made history as the first openly trans woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.)
“I clung to Nichiren Buddhism to change my life, and the lives of those around me for the better, and I believe that’s what has happened. I cannot fix my past actions, I can only say that today I am not the same person from 10 or 20 years ago, that although I have not committed any crime, I am not perfect either, nor am I now. I only try to learn and be a better person every day.” (Some of the tweets in question were made more recently, in 2020.)
The statement continued, with Gascón saying: “I recognize, with tears, that they have already won, they have achieved their objective, to sully, with lies or things taken out of context my existence. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not racist (they will be surprised when they discover that one of the most important people in my current life and whom I love most is Muslim) nor any of the things for which they have judged and convicted me without trial and without the option to explain their real intention; I have always fought for a more just society and for a world of freedom, of peace and of love. I will never support wars, religious extremism or oppression of races and peoples.”
Gascón went on to say that she has been painted as if she is “insulting even my colleagues, things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality, words that without background only appear hateful. All as long as I don’t win anything and sink.”
The actress ended the post with words her mother shared with her previously, about her not caring if Gascón wins the Oscar but wanting her to be well and not be hurt by others. “Mamá, life has put me here to send a message of hope and love in this world, and I am going to fulfill it,” she concluded.
Read the full post, in Spanish, below:
Gascón’s eye-popping tweets — in which she called the 93rd Oscars the “Afro-Korean festival” due to Daniel Kaluuya’s and Yuh-Jung Youn’s respective wins, deemed Floyd a “drug addict and a hustler” and disparaged everyone from Muslims to Black people — were first unearthed by freelance culture writer Sarah Hagi. Since the news cycle’s inception Thursday, Gascón has issued a statement through Netflix, in which she said: “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt. As someone in a marginalized community I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
Additionally commenting on the matter was co-star Zoe Salda?a, who said: “It makes me really sad because I don’t support and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group. I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them were about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity. And it just saddens me.”
The controversy is the latest to plague the film: French auteur Jacques Audiard was under fire for calling Spanish the language of “the poor and migrants” and not researching Mexican history prior to making the film, about a Mexican cartel boss aiming to retire and undergo transition. The film — leading the pack with 13 Oscar nods — while the darling of critics and awards bodies alike, is deeply unpopular in Mexico, where it is screening to empty theaters and has even prompted a parody short film response titled “Johanne Sacreblu,” billed as “a French-inspired film made entirely without a French cast or crew.”
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